Camino de Santigo: Reflections and Responses

By: Eric Woodrow, Chaplain, Wesley Mission Queensland

Walking for spiritual reflection is becoming increasing popular, however, I have a confession to make, I am a “reluctant walker’, it’s just not something I normally do! However, in the last year I felt called to spend time in reflection while going for a very, very, long walk. As a result in October, 2024, I completed a 17-day Portuguese Camino de Santiago Walk with my wife Katrina and long-time colleague and friend, Pastor Phil Smith.

The “Camino” is a Spiritual Walk, completed by “pilgrims” and is said to finish at the final resting place of St James, one of Christ’s disciples. The journey provides an opportunity for self-reflection and for experiencing community for thousands of pilgrims each year.

The Camino Walk has three main paths starting from Portugal, Spain or France, which offer walk lengths from 100 to over 800 km. (A friend once said to me, 800 km trips are why they invented cars!) I chose the Coastal Portuguese Camino as this path starts by following a board walk that meanders beside the beautiful Atlantic ocean. I found this place provided opportunities to reflect and find meaning in the presence of God in creation.

The path you follow is marked by signposts featuring a scallop which is part of the legend of James’ life. These are placed at the twists and turns on the path, and I found there were a lot of physical and spiritual twists and turns to negotiate the journey.

This was a time of deep work for me where I discovered a new self-awareness of my identity; based on a new understanding of what the love of God and my neighbour looks like. I discovered new forms of community expressed in the routines of daily life and in the stillness of being alone with God. For me it was a life shaping experience!

A fundamental question for every pilgrim is what to carry on your back, as most pilgrims carry all their life needs. Your wants can become luxuries that might lead to strains and pains after days of walking. The guideline is to carry ten percent of your body weight, which immediately made me think I need to gain some kilograms so I can carry more!

I chose to carry one change of clothes and this led to frequent conversations in laundromats. Conversations while waiting for the wash cycle to finish led to new connections being made. Links in the Camino community are quickly formed. Often the talk would start about the weather and then move on to what motivated someone to commit to this exhausting exploit.

I came to understand pilgrims as a self-selecting group of seekers who saw this walk as important to understanding their spirituality, their source of hope and meaning. I came to see that discipleship started when you added the washing powder to the machine and closed the lid, and sat down amongst the body of Christ seeking to see Jesus in fellow waiters.

To be honest, at times despite the beauty of creation, I found walking for hours and hours to be very boring and I questioned, why would anyone do this? It was in these moments I found the peace that comes from slowing down. I think this is the type of isolation that people used to lock themselves up in hermitages to achieve back in the day, and in the moment, I came to a new appreciation of this practice.

“But he (Christ) would often withdraw to desolate places to pray” (Luke 5:16).

Enacting this rhythm for me was the start a new life-giving spiritual discipline. I found that in the desolate place in the silence, my perspectives were shaped by new understandings, based on what Christ had done for me.

The value of being in the moment for me was to remember that I am never truly alone and on day three, after the walking honeymoon was over, in the silence, I gained a deeper understanding of self and of my relationship with God through Christ. God was needing me to see a new way of working out my placement role in Chaplaincy. I gained a new understanding of the power of silence and felt noticed by God in a new way. In the silence I felt loved by God through Christ.

On any long walk you are going to be exposed to a wide range of weather conditions and the influence of Hurricane Kirk was that I walked through ten days of rain which at times had a scarifying effect. I felt stretched in many ways and found myself sustained by prayer, and conversations. In these moments I found hope and meaning in the conviction that I was in the place I was meant to be.

A worship service in Pontevedra (Spain) where the scripture reading of Luke 10:1-23, (the sending out of the 72) was delivered in English, provided a trigger for reflection. Jesus’ followers were sent out in pairs to spread the Good News which highlighted the value of teamwork.

Each day, community was enacted around the meal table as we shared what we had to meet needs, sharing the love of Jesus. In these times pilgrims shared openly and it was a privilege to listen and be present for the Camino community.

As I reflect on this special experience, I came away with a new understanding of God through Christ as the source of hope and meaning in my life. I have a new understanding of the value of living with simplicity. What do I really need to take with me? Seeing Christ in others enables me to serve in new ways. The Camino provides a special environment that encourages life-changing reflections, and challenges pilgrims to enact these learnings for their good and God’s glory.